Question

Write the balanced chemical equation for the following.

A mixture of soda lime and sodium acetate is heated.

Answer 1

• When sodium lime (NaOH+ CaO) is heated with sodium acetate, Methane gas and sodium carbonate is formed.
• In this reaction, carboxyl group is removed. So this reaction is called decarboxylation.
• $\underset{soda\mathit{}lime\mathit{}}{\underset{⏝}{\mathrm{CaO}+\mathrm{NaOH}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}}+{\underset{\mathrm{sodium}\mathrm{acetate}}{{\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{COONa}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}}_{}\underset{}{\overset{∆}{\to }}\underset{\mathrm{methane}}{{\mathrm{CH}}_4\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}+\underset{\mathrm{sodium}\mathrm{carbonate}}{{\mathrm{Na}}_2{\mathrm{CO}}_3\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)}$